Crazy Ping Spikes in Online Games

[Moisture]

Hello! For the past few weeks I have been experiencing crazy ping spikes. The strange thing is that it only happens on games. It has never happened before also. I ran games on two different computers on the same WiFi, and experienced the same problem. I play games like COD, Fortnite, Valorant, Rocket League, etc, and my friends haven't experienced any issues of the sort. I am also on the latest firmware for the XR500. Is this because of COVID-19, or is there a fix? Thanks!

[Netduma-Fraser · Accepted solution]

That will be down to the ISP then, you've done what you can on your side now with that percentage but that issue is something you'll need to try and get the ISP to help with. It may help to say that your job requires low latency and that it is interfering with it, they may be more amenable.

[Netduma-Fraser]

What is your exact physical setup? Are you using QoS? It sounds like you may be experiencing local congestion. If you're using QoS, what settings are you using?

[Moisture]

What do you mean by physical setup?

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@Netduma-Fraser wrote:
What is your exact physical setup? Are you using QoS? It sounds like you may be experiencing local congestion. If you're using QoS, what settings are you using?

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As for QoS I recently disabled it and haven't seen much of a change.

[Netduma-Fraser]

For example AT&T modem model # > XR500 > another router and mentioning where devices are connected to. How did you set it up before? If you disabled it and didn't notice a change then it properly wasn't correct when enabled.

[Moisture]

I'm Using an ethernet cable connected from a Netgear ProSafe 5 Port Gigabit Switch. Before, I didn't really change anything on the Qos except the Bandwidth Allocation, which I put the majority on my PC. 

[Netduma-Fraser]

The Anti-Bufferbloat option is what will really eliminate any lag that you encounter so I would suggest you follow our optimal settings guides here: http://support.netduma.com/en/support/solutions/folders/16000090646

What is the XR plugged into?

[Moisture]

The XR500 is plugged into the Netgear Prosafe, and an ethernet cord to my desktop (and an outlet). I just updated my QoS, so hopefully that helps. Thanks.

[Netduma-Fraser]

Keep us updated!

[Moisture]

Sorry! My Ping has actually gotten higher after I adjusted the settings to optimal. The ping spikes have stayed the same. I decided to keep the QoS disabled.

[Netduma-Fraser]

That doesn't make any sense. What else is connected to the Pro safe that isn't connected to the XR? What is the Prosafe connected to?

[Moisture]

Okay my bad. The Prosafe is connected into a port in the wall. I can provide a picture if needed.

[Netduma-Fraser]

The prosafe is a switch right? Is there anything connected to that or a reason you can't connect the XR to the wall? Are ALL devices connected to the XR? If not you will need to do that first otherwise it can't effectively control the network to eliminate congestion. I would suggest following this guide while doing lots of downloads and change your Anti-Bufferbloat % (while using Always) until you find what lowers the ping/keeps it the most stable: http://support.netduma.com/en/support/solutions/articles/16000074717-how-to-test-your-internet-ping

[Moisture]

Alright I just connected the XR to the wall.. I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place. I'll try the ping plotter when I can. The only thing that confuses me is the ping spikes are only in games. I ran tests in cmd and I didn't get any ping spikes. I'm guessing it has something to do with my Geo-Filter? Thanks.

[Netduma-Fraser]

If the ping spikes are only appearing on the games then it indicates that the servers are under heavy load and what with everything going on at the moment that is quite likely. Best bet is to use the Geo-Filter to force different servers and see what plays best, even ones slightly further away may be more stable.

[Moisture]

Hey, so I just ran ping plotter and this is what I got:

This is my ping with QoS on optimal ( I tried a bunch of other settings too but all looked similar to this).This is my ping with QoS off

[Netduma-Fraser]

The pictures haven't been moderated yet so I can't see them, could you upload them to something like imgur.com and share the links please?

[Moisture]

Oh sorry lol. 

With QoS - https://imgur.com/a/RNE3mBm

Without - https://imgur.com/a/Ca3J2eM

[Netduma-Fraser]

What did you ping? That ping is far too low to be a site on the internet. Did you ping the router IP?

[Moisture]

What do you think I should ping? I pinged my router's ip address.

[Netduma-Fraser]

A local IP address like the router IP will always be low - unless there is a fault so it won't highlight any lag/congestion issues. Ping a local website preferably or something like google.com but I would try a few different sites as they can vary in their results.

[Moisture]

Here's the ping with QoS enabled -

https://imgur.com/a/u9nudai 

https://imgur.com/a/DGnBJ9n

Ping with QoS diabled - 

https://imgur.com/a/hlZxeSc

https://imgur.com/a/iu7LYVr

[Netduma-Fraser]

Are they both with heavy downloads happening? What QoS settings are being used at that time?

[Moisture]

For both I was downloading a game. The one with QoS enabled was the optimal QoS settings.

[Netduma-Fraser]

As in you used 70/70? It needs more tweaking to find the percentage that lowers that ping more and to eliminate those spikes.

[Moisture]

Is it going to need to be higher or lower do you think? And yes I used 70/70.